After Despair
by Jario5615
Summary: It was finally over. No more despair, no more killing, no more distrust. Life just went on for those who survived the mess of the Ultimate Despairs. DG1, 2 and 3 spoilers.
1. Prologue: Several Months later

Makoto Naegi gazed out of the third floor window of his office. The view was normal. _Normal._ Something that hadn't existed for the longest time.

Now headmaster of his old High School, Hope's Peak Academy, he was only just realising the gravitas of the situation. He always questioned and second-guessed his decision to become headmaster of the school; not that _he_ had decided it, more that he was told he would be the only person suitable by all of his peers. He hadn't argued.

And now, he was preparing the entrance ceremony for the first classes of students under his leadership. Nervous was the wrong word. He had no idea how to address a bunch of teenagers on their new high school life, barely being an adult himself. He would probably end up winging it, like he had for most of his speeches for the future foundation. Hopefully, his luck would hold out for him.

"It's nearly time, Headmaster" A familiar voice came from the doorway. Makoto didn't need to turn around to identify it, but he still found himself looking anyway.

The lilac-haired woman standing in the threshold of the room smiled at Makoto. Her gloved hands held a clipboard, no doubt containing the itineary of today's proceedings. Kyoko Kirigiri was almost as good as being assistant head as she was a detective, but in Makoto's eyes, she was best at being his girlfriend. It could be said he was perhaps too attached to her, but this was not without reason.

As the ship carrying Class 77 towards Jabberwock Island crept towards the horizon, Makoto felt mixed feelings lurking around him. The killing games were over, and the world had finally forgone despair. But yet he still felt a pang in his heart as he had lost something close to it.

Just hours before, he had awoke to the lifeless corpse of his closest friend, his heart had collapsed. He refused to show it then, as he needed to remain strong, but now, he was ready to give in to his sadness, his despair.

But he was knocked out this trance by a polite cough behind him. He looked to see what the disturbance was, and as he saw it his heart melted.

Standing there, in the flesh, was the lilac-haired woman he was mourning. Her face was still a little reddend from the poison, but it was Kyoko. Alive.

Without considering it, Makoto leapt towards her and balled her into an embrace. He let himself cry. There was no reason to hide his happiness.

Kyoko had expected something like this from Makoto, and expected nothing less from him. His tears and embrace were a warm welcome, and she held him too. Even though she had confidence in the drug for the poison, she had known the possibility it would fail, and it pained her to leave Makoto without telling her exactly how she felt. She already knew how he felt; despite her skills, he was still more readable than a book. Thus, she thought it only right to prove she reciprocated said feelings.

So, she leaned into his head, which was crying happily on her shoulder, and kissed his cheek. It marked an official beginning to their relationship.

"...koto? Makoto?"

Eventually, Makoto returned to the present. The clipboard had been deposited on his desk, and Kyoko had her arms on his, attempting to return him to the now. He usually did this from time to time, and occasionally the flashback was bad, so she had made a point of recalling him out of his flashbacks, good or bad. Considering he was yet to show any kind of negative emotion, she assumed it was a good one. Still, he had to deliver the entrance ceremony - now was not the time for flashback.

Kyoko was so engrossed with worrying about her significant other, that she only realised he had returned when she felt his hand against her cheek. She was worried about him _too_ much recently. As she looked into his eyes, she felt herself and saw him blushing. Even though they had been in a relationship now for several months, they still acted like awkward teenagers.

But then, that _was_ an accurate description of them.

"I'm ready" Makoto gave her one of his hope-filled smiles, ones only befitting the ultimate hope. He lead her out of the door, and into their future.

* * *

The sea was calm. It crashed against the water-break of the harbour wall, and smashed along the beachfront. But it was still calm.

Hajime Hinata liked watching the sea. It was somewhat unpredictable- something he couldn't control was controlling it. The madness of the ocean helped create a tranquillity in his mind, a mind ever turbulent, engineered with every talent those scientists could ram inside his head. At least now he had a personality again.

He took out his most important possession out of his pocket, the one thing he would refuse to let out his sight: _her_ hair-clip - his last physical memory of her. She would have probably liked sitting here too.

He wondered if he hadn't become Izuru, maybe this all would not have happened. If he had not been so fixated on his lack of talent, of a complex rendering him unworthy of _her_ , this may have all been avoided.

"Yooo! Hajime! Ibuki found you!" Despite having a decent idea that someone was behind him, he did not even need to attempt to calculate who it was. It was polite to look at someone when they were addressing you, so he did.

"Oh, Ibuki," He replied, attempting to sound surprised, "Did you need me for something?"

"Food." She said sternly. A devious look then emerged on her face. "Let me bite you!" Hajime began to look for an escape route, as he still had marks from the last time she attempted to use him as a sentient food source...

"Joking!" she cackled, "But seriously, the foods almost ready, and everyone would be waiting for you otherwise"

Despite her questionable method of telling him, he appreciated Ibuki coming to get him. He took one final glance at the sea, put the hair-clip back in his pocket, and went down to join Ibuki. They shared idle conversation as they walked back to the restaurant.

"It's better to be with your friends, than being by yourself... I think" Is likely something _she_ would of said. Even though it hurt thinking about her, it was a pain he didn't mind.


	2. School Life

One side effect of becoming headmaster at Hope's Peak Academy was that Makoto found his daily schedule to be surprisingly hectic.

He would attempt to begin his morning at 5:30, but since he was never a true morning person, this never happened. The same could not be said for his girlfriend however, as Kyoko would succeed at drawing him from his slumber with a cup of coffee at around 6:00, after she had already gotten ready for the day.

The morning staff meeting would then be held at 6:30 in his office. It was however further from a typical staff meeting. Firstly, only five of the seven staff members would actually comprehend the discussion at this time in the morning. Hiro would normally still be snoring and practically sleepwalked into the office, if he even made it, and Komaru shared her brother's dislike for the morning, so dozed most of the way through it.

On one such morning, the meeting was delayed. Toko had yet to show up, which was odd as she always made a point of it to come as not to agitate Byakuya - the meetings were his idea after all.

"Has anyone seen Toko this morning?" Makoto asked his staff. Most of them shook their heads, but one was as blunt as ever:

"She is currently locked in her room for everyone's safety," nobody needed an explanation after that, but Byakuya continued nonetheless, "I found her passed out with a some blood on the back on her hand seeping from a cut. I assume I don't need to explain my reasoning for her imprisonment?" The unanimous stony face present on the rest of the staff gave Byakuya his answer.

* * *

From 7:00 onward, breakfast would be served, and it was also at this time the student's were advised to awake. On some days, it would be a full english or continental, but mostly it was just either cereal, toast, etc. Those who boarded at the school would all dine together, including the staff. The students would usually ask an array of questions to the teachers in the morning:

"Mr Togami, could you explain compound interest again?"

"Miss Fukawa, what's pathetic fallacy?"

and questions like that.

Even though the main purpose of the students' education was primarily based around improving their talent, it was decided they would still need some form of general education, so they could survive in the outside world. Opinions on exactly _what_ the general eductation would be differed greatly, so it was decided it would be hobbled together from the standard curriculum.

On another occassion, one question managed to invoke more thought on the teacher than the student:

"Mrs Naegi, how does mitosis work again?"

The question was simple enough to answer, and Kyoko answered it with ease. It was the address that caught her off guard. Maybe it was a slip of the tongue? But then why did it slip? Had she and Makoto showed a few too many displays of affection in front of the student? How many was just too many? Her mind swarmed with questions, interrogating herself.

But the one thing that bewildered her the most, was that she didn't _mind_ being called "Mrs Naegi". Even though they had been in a serious relationship for several months now, it was only at that point where she had genuinely considered marriage. A past version of her would have dismissed the idea entirely, and solely focused on her work.

That was before she had met Makoto though.

Now she was silently planning ways to plant the idea inside her boyfriend's head.

* * *

For the rest of the day until dinner, the actual schooling was done. Some classes would be held throughout the day, but it was mostly up to the students what they wanted to do. Most would spend time doing what they loved doing, ergo working on their talent. Classes were mandatory, but they made only a few hours each week.

For Makoto, his days could go from being interesting to menial. He spent a large amount of time in his office, sifting though e-mails on his computer. Most of them were still from news companies that survived the tragedy, and were clinging for an interview with him. He had already given an explanation of the events of the tragedy, and had no desire to reiterate himself.

An email he received one day did catch his eye however:

 _Dear Makoto,_

 _I have succeeded in salvaging the remains of the Neo World architecture, and I think will find the results interesting._

 _As excepted, any trace of the virtual world itself or the Despair AI has been deleted, along with most of the program itself, but two sub-programs remained in the system. The first was the original AI program, which the Neo World program was integrated with; and also the memory transfer program used to connect to the immersion pods._

 _Some of the data was in tact too. Most of it was digital blueprints for some of Monokuma's technology he used, but what was the most interesting was a memory engram left in the data. I can only assume it was the sixteenth memory file, which we couldn't upload._

 _I will investigate it more, but I do believe using the salvaged data the engram can be fully recovered._

 _You've probably guessed my plan, so I'll send regular updates on the project._

 _Yours, Kazuchi Soda_

 _P.S. Transcribed/edited by Sonja_

Makoto had a vague idea of what was going through Kazuchi's mind, and he agreed that investigating it would be a good idea. He'd keep it to himself for the time being, as some could regard the ethics behind it as questionable, but he wasn't one to question hope.

* * *

Dinner was mostly the same as breakfast. Students would ask questions to the teachers, or in some instances converse with them - the majority of which was Hiro spiralling off about another conspiracy theory. The dining hall would usually be occupied for longer, but by 20:00 it was mostly empty, as most of the students were winding down for the night.

After finishing off some work in his office, Makoto would usually retire to his room at around 21:30, and would most likely take a shower, or a bath if it had been a particularly stressful day. The nighttime bell would ring at 22:00, at which time Kyoko would return to their room, presumably after finishing whatever work she needed to do. They would then have a late night drink in bed before they went to sleep. Kyoko would idly read a book, but she mainly talked with Makoto. Since she was "reading" He would usually lead the conversation, but she had decided on a specific night it was her turn to lead it.

"I had something odd happen at breakfast the other day" She told him.

"Oh?"

"A student called me _Mrs Naegi_ " Makoto blushed, but she still wasn't done teasing him.

"W-was it a slip of the tongue"

"Most likely," She closed her book, placed it on her beside table, leaned over to Makoto and whispered: "But I didn't mind", and kissed him goodnight. She then turned off the lamp, and lay her head on the pillow, silently smirking. Even though it was dark now, she could still see him blushing hard. She liked his bashfulness - she thought it was cute.

Makoto sat awake for a while after Kyoko had kissed him goodnight, as he was thinking. Thinking very hard.

Thinking very hard about the best way to propose to the Ultimate Detective sleeping beside him.


End file.
